Subject: [olympiaandrafah] [orscpdelegation] Update 1 from Israel & Palestine
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 08:18:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: orscpdelegates@riseup.net
To: orscpdelegation@lists.riseup.net

Hello Friends and Family,
This is Trent and Siouxzie, the 2nd leg of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City
Project delegation. We have been in Israel and Palestine for a week and
already have a lot to share.

1.  Our phone # is XXXXXXXX (exactly how you dial from US) –
please feel free to call us anytime (we are 10 hours ahead of the west
coast). American voices are a nice comfort.

2.  Our first couple nights in Jerusalem we stayed in the Old City at a
place called al-Hishami Hostel. The place is owned by a wonderful man named
Saleh. Saleh told us a few stories worth repeating. At this hostel/hotel
there is forty rooms (some with multiple beds). When we were there, we were
two of the six guests staying at the hostel. At Christmas time, two years
ago, his hostel was filled. He had twenty-five workers and they had to sleep
in the office because there were no rooms left. Today, he is the only one
that works at the hotel and practically no guests come. This is just one of
the devastating stories about the Palestinian economy. He also told us a
story about the Prophet Mohammed. The Prophet lived next door to a Jewish
man and everyday the Jewish man would put his garbage outside the Prophet’s
house. The Prophet would take the garbage everyday to the dump. One day
there was no garbage outside the Prophet’s house. So, the Prophet went to
the Jewish man’s house
 and told him that if he ever needed anything, he would be there to help
him. At this point in the story the two men realized each others humanity
and were friends. Then Saleh said it doesn’t matter if you are a Christian,
Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, non-believer, etc. if you realize each others
humanity. He went on to say that there are good and bad people everywhere,
no matter what religion or nationality. His analogy was, “not all my fingers
are the same.”

3. Siouxzie’s notebook was stolen from an Israeli security guard outside the
Western Wall and kids will open our packs when they walk behind us if they
are not latched. We are learning that we have to constantly watch our backs
– with shopkeepers, children, soldiers – everyone.

4.  We got into a conversation with a man at the bookstore and we told him
that we came to see for ourselves what was happening in Palestine. We told
him we would bring stories home from here. He astutely noted that people
from the US and Europe have been coming here for years and bringing the
stories back and nothing has changed. This brings up a very good point. What
are internationals going to do, besides bring the stories back that will
really make change? He was very cynical about the change a “report-back”
will really do and upon reflection we are beginning to feel the same way. We
need to do more than just tell stories about hardship and destruction. We
need to figure out how to really change US foreign policy.

5. We have realized that our comrade Neal has become an expert at
solidarity. He is well-known and loved dearly in many people’s hearts over
here. Hisham told us that he cried three times in his life – once when his
father died, once when his mother died, once when Neal left. He considers
Neal a son. Neal has done an amazing job in representing our community and
has taken his activism to a level we should all learn from. We look forward
to hearing more stories about the work Neal has done. Kudos to Neal!! (You
rock dude!!)

That’s all for now.  We will write more as we see and do more.

Peace, Salaam, Shalom,
Trent and Siouxzie

P.S. We have decided to help Israel and Palestine with their stray cat
problem. If any of you want a cat, just let us know and we’ll ship one off
immediately. If you already have a cat, your new cat might eat it. :)